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When in doubt be sure to look for the signs, which is just what Bronx-born illustrator Rudy Gutierrez did. Walking down Broadway one hot summer day the then-struggling freelancer saw a sign that read: Help Wanted HMV Jazz department. "At that point I had never worked any other job except art and the teaching of art, Gutierrez says. After being given an impromptu jazz quiz by a store manager - Gutierrez, a music aficionado, passed with flying colors - the man went into his office to get Gutierrez an application.

While waiting for him to return, Gutierrez got up and began walking aimlessly down the isle of the record store. "I decided to look down," he says, "I don't know why I did but I saw an album that I had done just out of school and it just stopped me in my tracks." Gutierrez had never seen the Lionel Hampton Live CD, which he worked on in vinyl, and which at $30 he couldn't afford to own at the time. Picking it up, Gutierrez said to himself: "You know what, Rudy? Put this thing down and get out of here because this is what you are supposed to be doing."

Along with teaching illustration at his alma mater, Pratt Institute, Gutierrez has kept that promise to himself: doing only what he's supposed to be doing. Gutierrez considers his style to be his language, a kind of gumbo: "Different languages and layers of reality come together to form my language, it's real, it's abstract, flat, tonal, rhythmic, urban at times but first and foremost it's about emotion," he says. As evidenced in a client list that includes Rolling Stone, Playboy, Pulse Magazine, Arista, Verve, Harper Collins, Pepsi-Cola, and Sony, that emotion is deeply felt.

Whether it's performing as a guest artist with Def Dance Jam Workshop, doing live painting performances, or serving as a board member for organizations such as H.E.A.L., and the Society of Illustrators, inspiration is the driving force behind Gutierrez's work. Like jazz: "It always comes back to the same thing," he says. "I hope that people are inspired by what I do and that my work possibly speaks for people who can't speak for themselves." Gutierrez spoke to Altpick from his New York studio.

Do you remember the first time you were inspired?
I was a kid 12 or 13 looking at that Santana Abraxas cover by Mati Klarwein and going, Wow, I want to do this. I was totally inspired to do my own art and I remember dreaming of one day doing a Santana cover.

And you did.
Yes, my artwork was used for the Santana Shaman CD cover.

Was there a pivotal moment or job when you said to yourself, 'I can't do this anymore?'
There was no specific job but I'll tell you a wild story: When I got out of school there was still some illustration studios around - very few and they were on their way out. I was working in one. It was nine to five and I had benefits and salary. I'm in there basically doing advertising, so I am working on a Wonder Bread ad. We use to be on 58th and 3rd and there was a patio to the apartment that the studio was in. I am sitting at my desk. Someone had jumped from the 18th floor the night before and landed on our patio. Someone committed suicide and I'm sitting there drawing Wonder Bread. I look to the right and there's a dead body right outside and I'm going, 'Uh, this Wonder Bread should not be this important.'

And then what did you do?
I left that studio. I had a rep for a couple of years and then I decided to go out on my own.

Is there any trend in the use of illustration?
That is hard. One trend that I have seen is people going for this whole edgy look but without content. That kind of worries me. I love the edgy stuff and the kind of nod to so called 'primitive' and 'indigenous work.' I love that stuff but I also like to see it with content and base under it. I've seen students have problems with that - they try to imitate some of that stuff without really having a strong base beneath them and that worries me because as trends go, they go. And where do you go if you don't have the facility to change? I think people have to be careful with that.

What kind of advice do you give your students?
Number one, first and foremost, is perseverance because it doesn't generally happen right away. There is always an exception, but most of us have to persevere and realize that we have something of value that is the main thing. A lot of times students don't realize that they have something of value. I don't know how many times I would have students who are having so-called 'problems' doing so-called 'finished work' and I would look through their sketch books and say, 'Wow, this stuff is amazing!' and you realize that it is directly from them. It is them with no-holds-barred. It's them, they are not trying to do anything but just be themselves in their sketchbooks. I find them fighting that and they'll say, 'Well. those are just doodles.' I tell them, 'No, man, that is your essence right there. That is what you want to get out.' Now we've got to figure out your way to get your essence out. It kind of changes the way they think, and their idea of what a so-called finished piece is. It is a whole perception thing.

- Contributed by Mary-Beth Holland